Show the Newbie the Way
by thecoleaderofgroupb
Summary: He had gotten used to the Glade then the next one came up. Finally, Chuck thought. I'm not the Greenie any more. Author's Note: Eric was one of the names listed on the name wall in the film so I re-imagined him as the Keeper of the Sloppers.


"Get moving Chuck!" the Keeper of the Sloppers barked as he threw a bucket at the smallest Glader. "Fry's got the scraps for the animals – move it!"

Chuck held his hands out to catch the bucket but it slipped through his fingers and fell on the ground with a loud bang. The other Gladers snickered and Chuck's ears burned as he scrambled to pick up the bucket and head off to the kitchen area for another day.

"Sup Chuckie?" Fry asked when the youngest Glader came up to him, slightly out of breath.

"Just doing my job Fry," Chuck huffed as he tried to catch his breath. He had tried to move a little faster so Eric wouldn't have an excuse to yell at him more. Sometimes that guy was a shucking pain to deal with – you just never knew what was going to set him off.

Frypan glanced over at Eric, who was busy cracking jokes with some of the other Gladers nearby, and shook his head. "He's being a real slinthead," Fry muttered. "Just you wait and see when Alby comes by." He wiped his hands on a dishtowel and bent down to pick up the bucket of scraps from breakfast by his worktable. Chuck held his own bucket out as Fry began pouring the leftovers into the bucket, stopping once Chuck's was full.

"There's probably at least another 2–3 buckets-worth so come back when you're done," Frypan told him before getting back to work on breaking down the meat for lunch.

"Yeah…'course," Chuck said before he headed for the fenced areas with the livestock in them. He avoided looking over at Eric as he made his way to the first area with pigs and he dumped the bucket into the trough closest to him. The pigs squealed and began pushing and shoving each other as they made their way to the trough at the sound of food hitting their feeders.

Chuck turned and began to head back to the kitchen when he spotted Alby striding over to Eric and reprimanding him for standing around and doing nothing. Eric tried to defend himself, looking around at the other Gladers to defend him. However, they shrugged and mumbled that they needed to focus on their work now and would talk later. He caught a few of the words that were exchanged as he continued his way to the kitchen.

"…Rule 1 in this Glade…"

"Alby it was just this time! …gonna get to work now!"

"Keep that up and the rest of the Keepers may decide to banish you."

Chuck almost stopped in his tracks at those words. Banish. He had never witnessed a Banishment before but he had heard all about them from the other Gladers. That was the ultimate punishment in the Glade – if you didn't follow the rules and continued to be a problem, the rest of the Keepers plus Alby could vote to have you banished to the Maze forever. That one word was enough to make anyone, Greenie or veteran Glader, shape up and quickly make up for whatever mistake they did in order to avoid that fate.

"Hey Fry! Back for the next bucket!" Chuck half yelled once he reached the Cook's table.

"Chill Greenie, no need to shout," Frypan said as he rolled his eyes. He filled Chuck's bucket again and went back to his work without another word.

Mentally, Chuck wanted to kick himself for yelling. Why the klunk did he do that? Out of all the people here in this place, Frypan was one of the few who was nice to him and the last thing he wanted was to have him ticked off by Chuck's quirks.

As he dumped the contents into another trough, he heard an alarm go off and he jerked his head around to see where it was coming from. He watched as the other Gladers dashed towards the area where a large metal elevator was rising from the ground called The Box. He remembered when they pulled him out of that thing a month ago. Wait a second…it was a month!

"New Greenie," Chuck whispered to himself as he stared at the group huddled around The Box. He wiped his hands on his pants and started to head over there, only have Eric pass by him and bark at him to finish his work.

"Got it," Chuck said, trying to hide his disappointment. He wandered over to Frypan's station and refilled his bucket with the remaining scraps. As he walked back to the livestock pens, he thought he saw something dash towards one set of the Maze doors and he jerked his head to see what it was.

"Hey we got a Runner!" Zart crowed.

Chuck watched as the Greenie made it a few steps further before tripping over a patch of grass and falling face first on the ground. Despite the fall, this guy was pretty fast!

The other Gladers laughed and mocked the Greenie's attempt to escape before a few of them grabbed him by his arms and began hauling him to the Pit. Chuck pretended to busy himself with the final trough and he tapped the bottom of his bucket to make sure he got all of it.

"Hey Chuck!" another of the Sloppers yelled. "Gimme a hand with this, would ya?"

"Yeah, coming," Chuck called out as he began heading over to the other Slopper.

* * *

He had been coming back from the stream with the laundry for some of the Slicers when Newt found him.

"There ya are!" Newt said as he came up. "Right, so Alby told me to fetch you so you can help the new Greenie out. Make sure to grab a spare hammock and supplies for him before ya go. They're in the Lookout right now."

"Okay," Chuck said as he put down the baskets with the Slicers's clothes. "So what's–"

"Look, can ya save the questions for later?" Newt cut him off as he crossed his arms over his chest. "The Greenie came up late and we kinda are running behind."

"Ye-yeah!" Chuck replied as he made his way over to the storage shed which held extra supplies. He pulled out all of the essentials for a new Glader and he balanced them on top of each other as best as he could without blocking his view.

As he walked over to the Lookout, a few of the Gladers shot him looks, while others grinned and patted him on the shoulder.

"How's it feel Chuck?" one of them asked.

"…Great I guess," Chuck said as he passed them. It didn't feel real – had it really been a month since he came up, huddled in a corner with tears streaming down his face, trying to remember anything?

He smiled at the other Gladers who congratulated him and Frypan gave him a thumbs-up as he passed. Yeah, it was real. Shuck, did it feel good to not be the new guy anymore.

As he neared the Lookout, he took a deep breath. The last Glader before him had been Henry and he hadn't been much help – basically he showed Chuck the basics before abandoning him to get back to work. Alby had given him a little help, maybe Frypan from time to time, but most of the things around here he had to learn on his own.

_I'm not gonna be like that_, he thought as he approached the base of the Lookout. It was too soon to tell but if this Greenie was decent, maybe…maybe he stood a chance of making a real friend in this place.


End file.
